"Your defeat will be my greatest achievement!"
"Heart Hunter, I am Hawk Moth! So, you no longer believe in love? Well, I'm giving you the power to destroy it — and wherever it is, whatever its form, devour it! All I ask in return are Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous. Now, feast on love!"
— Hawk Moth
Hawk Moth akumatises André and Audrey Bourgeois into Heart Hunter, who seek to devour all the love in Paris. But their rampage is just a distraction for his true goal: finding the guardian of the Miraculous.
Tropes:
- Anti-Climax: Just as Ladybug figures out a strategy to beat Heart Hunter, Hawk Moth takes away their powers.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: We once again see Marinette use this as herself rather than as Ladybug. Just like the first time, she improvises a distraction so that she can get away with Adrien (plus Kagami).
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: André and Audrey are totally at odds with each other in the beginning, but they manage to hug each other in the end after being purified by Hawk Moth.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Hawk Moth manages to find and capture Master Fu, steal the Miracle Box and all the Miraculous inside (minus the Dragon Miraculous), turn Chloé against Ladybug, and akumatize her into Miracle Queen so she can command all the Miraculous holders at once.
- Badass Fingersnap: Hawk Moth brings a sudden end to the fight between Heart Hunter and the heroes by taking away Heart Hunter's powers with one snap of his fingers.
- Batman Gambit: Gabriel's master plan quickly works like a charm:
- First, he designs an outfit that would specifically force André and Audrey to be close together, knowing the latter can barely stand the former, as a way to make them both mad enough to be akumatized. It works like a charm.
- Then, as Hawk Moth, he creates Heart Hunter to make an opponent that will force Ladybug to bring backup. When she does, Mayura and Hawk Moth follow, the former allowing herself to be seen so Ladybug will think she's on to the trick and let her guard down once she loses Mayura. It works, and Hawk Moth is able to steal the Miraculous Box.
- Finally, he manipulates Chloé by saying that the only reason he akumatized her parents is to show her that Ladybug would reject her again, and hedges his bets by having Nathalie sabotage Chloé's bee signal just in case Ladybug might actually think Chloé is available. This works even better than expected because Ladybug notices Chloé and ignores her pleas, causing Chloé to turn against Ladybug.
- It's also suggested he used the excuse of Adrien and Kagami attending the party to make sure Kagami, who he knows is also a hero, was nearby so Ladybug would opt for her instead of Chloé.
- Broken Pedestal: Chloé's resentment of Ladybug has become so great that she loses all faith in Ladybug and joins Hawk Moth.
- Character Development:
- Marinette is willing to support Kagami and Adrien being together and lets them share André's ice cream while Kagami has some regret over hurting Marinette's feelings by being with him.
- Adrien ponders about moving on from his hopeless crush on Ladybug and leans to kiss Kagami at the end of the episode.
- Continuity Nod: Adrien likes the selfie that Marinette and Kagami made in "Ikari Gozen".
- Darkest Hour: Hawk Moth and Mayura have the Miracle Box with all the Miraculouses except the Ladybug, Cat and Dragon, Master Fu's whereabouts (and those of the Turtle Miraculous) are unknown, and Chloé has been convinced to help Hawk Moth and is willingly akumatized.
- Déjà Vu: Adrien tells Marinette that she looks good with her hair down, having never seen it down before. After all, the events of "Cat Blanc", when she had her hair down while they were dating, were erased from the timeline.
- Dented Iron: Master Fu as Jade Turtle has greater control over his powers than Carapace, but his advanced age means he can't hold up in a fight nearly as well. This is on top of facing two adult Miraculous holders at once.
- Driven to Villainy: Marinette chooses Kagami as an ally over Chloé — not because she feels the dragon's abilities would be more useful than the bee's, but from a selfish personal desire to separate Kagami from Adrien. Indeed, she questions her decision as soon as it's made, and Hawk Moth uses it to break the pedestal Chloé holds Ladybug on and drag her into his camp.
- Downer Ending: The Bad Guy Wins and Marinette gives up on Adrien, allowing Kagami to kiss him, before she finally breaks down in Luka's arms, unable to deal with all the responsibilities placed upon her shoulders.
- Face–Heel Turn: Chloé willingly joins Hawk Moth after being slighted by Ladybug one too many times while Hawk Moth is offering her the Bee Miraculous to keep.
- Foreshadowing: The opening narration. In particular, the lingering shot of a miserable, dejected Chloé vainly shining her unanswered bee signal, as Marinette talks about the loss of hope.
- Heroic BSoD: Throughout the series, Marinette has often become stressed when balancing her personal life with her duties as Ladybug. Here, she finally breaks down from the pressure after giving up Adrien so he can be with Kagami and accidentally leading Hawk Moth to Master Fu.
- Hypocrite: Marinette's reasoning for not calling upon Queen Bee or Ryuko again is that the public knows their identities. In this episode, she once more chooses Ryuko as her ally, less because she needs the dragon and more to break up Kagami's intimate date with Adrien. This decision plays into Hawk Moth's plan for Chloé.
- I Have Your Wife: Subverted. Hawk Moth akumatizes Chloé's parents, but rather than hold this over her as she expects, he claims to have done it to show Chloé that Ladybug wouldn't trust her with the Bee Miraculous, then removes the akuma himself as a show of good faith.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the end, Marinette decides to back off so Adrien and Kagami can get together. Notably, she is the only one of Adrien's love interests (Kagami, Lila, Chloé, and herself) to ever do this.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Chloe is acting like a Spoiled Brat about it and while she definitely went too far by siding with Hawk Moth, she does have good reason to be angry that she wasn't included in the mission to save her own parents from Akumatization.
- Kick the Dog: Audrey's favourite hobby, exploited by Hawk Moth; her absurdly cruel treatment of her husband is the reason Heart Hunter is born.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Marinette temporarily loses her hair ties after playing in a ball pit with Adrien and Kagami. The two of them comment on how beautiful her hair is after this happens.
- Love Hurts: Marinette is given an opening monologue for the episode about how love can lead to hurt and loss. As different characters are shown, she describes how their love has led to losses specific to them.
- Love Makes You Evil: One of the points Marinette makes is that one can "lose their soul" in pursuit of love, with a cut to Gabriel and Nathalie harvesting butterflies around Emilie's pod and Nathalie coughing.
- Motive Misidentification: Kagami assumes Ladybug interrupting her moment with Adrien was to protect them from Heart Hunter, who feeds on love. It helps that Ladybug does apologize for ruining the moment. It could also have been to protect her identity as Ryuko.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The descriptions for Season 3 that leaked earlier in the year stated that Heart Hunter (Then referred to as "Loveater", the original French name) was a Cerberus-like creature. Instead they're a floating head with two faces.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Ladybug chooses Kagami over Chloé in an attempt to separate the former from Adrien, ignoring Chloé's pleas. That blind act of selfishness pushes Chloé into Hawk Moth's clutches.
- Also, Marinette showing up to Master Fu as Ladybug allows Hawk Moth and Mayura to locate where Fu is.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While completely unintentional on his part, Hawk Moth akumatizing André and Audrey into Heart Hunter inadvertently fixes their relationship with each other, as they are seen hugging each other as soon they safely land on the ground.
- Operation: Jealousy: In the opening, Cat Noir claims to have a girlfriend to Ladybug. When she is immediately supportive, he admits he was just trying to make her jealous. On the other hand, Ladybug gets kinda miffed about Cat's interaction with Ryuko and about him not calling her "my lady".
- Poor Communication Kills: Marinette knows that there is "another girl" Adrien is in love with. Unaware that it is herself, she comes to the conclusion that it must be Kagami and, without asking for confirmation, chooses to remove herself from the equation. Thus it pushes her towards her own rebound guy, Luka.
- Reflexive Response: Hawk Moth's first strategy when fighting Fu is to wait for him to time out like he typically does when fighting the teen heroes, only for Fu to point out that he's no more bound to a time limit than Hawk Moth himself. It doesn't matter, however, since Fu doesn't have the stamina to keep up when Hawk Moth and Mayura double team him.
- Rule of Symbolism: When Hawk Moth asks Chloé on what has Ladybug done for her in return for all the good deeds she had done, his reflection is on her sunglasses which showed her converting to his side.
- Also, the guitar song intended for Marinette and played by Luka, is very similar to the tune Adrien plays on the piano and in front of her later (so Marinette was already aiming for the good target). But when asked to choose between two flavors of ice creams, it really sounds like Marinette is asked instead to choose which girl (her, or Kagami) Adrien should date. Due to her lack of self-confidence, she chooses the "Kagami" flavor and leaves.
- Ship Tease: Marinette, Adrien and Kagami all decide to get ice cream from André, whose ice cream is rumored to tie the couple who share it together forever in love. André suggests three possible mixes between them with peppermint for Adrien, orange for Kagami and blackberry for Marinette.
- When the trio is running around having fun, Adrien noticeably holds Marinette's hand, not Kagami's.
- Shout-Out: Marinette, Adrien and Kagami try to slip by Gorilla by wearing cardboard boxes as disguises. It worked better for Solid Snake.
- Slipknot Ponytail: Marinette's hair ties come loose when she, Kagami, and Adrien are playing in the ball pit. Both Kagami and Adrien agree she looks good with her hair down.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Marinette’s response to Kagami assuming she separated her from Adrien to keep them safe from Heart Hunter. Though unusually, the real reason (giving her a Miraculous) is revealed shortly afterwards.
- Tempting Fate: Marinette forgets to deactivate her transformation when meeting Master Fu, but assures him she wasn't followed. As soon as she leaves, Hawk Moth shows up.
- Threesome Subtext: André offers 3 pairings of ice cream to represent the relationships between Marinette, Kagami, and Adrien. Marinette has trouble choosing and asks whether they can use all three flavors.
- Trojan Horse: The couple's cloak that Gabriel designs for André and Audrey gives them something to quarrel about and also physically links them together so they can be akumatized into a single villain.
- Uncertain Doom: Master Fu is nowhere to be found after being on the losing side of a battle with Hawk Moth and Mayura.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A villainous example where Hawk Moth motivates Chloé to be on his side.
